Profile
By FRED W. WRIGHT JR.
Published July 10, 2006
PREVIOUS POSITION: Partner, Mindgoal, St. Petersburg
Unlike many who move from New England to Florida in their mid 60s, Jeff Belyea has no plans to slow down.
"I go in a hundred directions," he confessed.
One of his newest directions is his role as director and art consultant for Nuance Galleries in Tampa. Belyea, 65, said he has been busy working to select artists and their works for upcoming shows at the gallery on S Dale Mabry Highway.
"A lot of my duties will be outside the gallery as an art consultant," he said. "I will call on businesses and work with businesses on purchasing art for corporate offices."
With the abundance of corporate office space, new condominiums and model homes, Belyea said, there are many opportunities to place work by artists, local and international.
"Anyplace where you might have art, I can come in, look at the environment and decor style, and look at ways to reflect that look with art," he said.
The gallery specializes in fine art paintings and limited-edition lithographs and serigraphs, Belyea said.
"We have some European artists. We have some local artists," he said. "We have some incredibly fun stuff by a New York artist, Charles Fazzino."
Nuance Galleries operates a large framing service, Belyea said, primarily for corporate clients like the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Tampa Bay Lightning and the University of Tampa.
"I'm an avocation artist," Belyea said. "I'm an artist who never really committed to it."
It was while publishing Artist in Maine magazine for 10 years that Belyea said he came into contact with scores of artists, national and international.
"I enjoy encouraging artists," he said. "I enjoy working with them and encouraging them and helping them with marketing.
"With 20 years in the ad agency business, if not a natural, then I'm a learned marketer," he said. "I enjoy helping people achieve goals."
Helping people encompasses a number of the directions Belyea goes in his busy life. For example, he offers consulting services through a business he cofounded two years ago, Mindgoal, which includes sales training programs and programs to help stop smoking, reduce stress and lose weight, he said.
Belyea, who was born in Washington, D.C., and grew up in Portland, Maine, said he and his wife visited St. Petersburg last winter for a month and decided this was where they wanted to live.
"We went back to Maine, sold our house in three weeks and moved to St. Petersburg," said Belyea, who lives in Madeira Beach. "We made a vow not to complain about the heat."
Belyea also teaches a class, Mystic Heart Meditation, on Mondays at the Unity Church in St. Petersburg. And he hosts an Internet show from 2 to 3 p.m. Sundays on BBSRadio.com, Sundays with Papajeff (a nickname once given him by a child, he said).
The Internet program "is definitely not mainstream," he said. "It's about meditation as a critical part of a goal-achievement strategy. Before you can accurately define your goals ... you need to do some inner work to learn some meditation, learn how to get in touch with who you really are," he said.
Belyea and his wife have a son, Aaron, 25.
Belyea has written two books published by Suite One Design in Portland. The first, You're Not Hooked. You've Been Hoodwinked. You Can Quit Smoking, was published in 1998. The second, Taming the Lions of Fear & Doubt, was published in 2002. A third book, Out of the Blue: A Story of Awakening, is scheduled for release in November, Belyea said.
CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
2004-present: Co-founder/partner, Mindgoal, a consulting business in Portland, Maine.
1999-2004: Vice president, sales and marketing, for the Grapheteria, art gallery and frame shop in Portland.
1997-1999: Director of marketing for G.M. Pollack & Sons, a 10-store chain of jewelry stores in Maine and New Hampshire.1986-1997: Publisher, Artists in Maine magazine and Saco Bay Reader magazine.
1983-1986: President and creative director, Chellis Advertising & Public Relations in Portland, which was at the time Maine's largest ad agency.
1981: Earns doctorate, Columbia Pacific University in San Rafael, Calif.
1979: Earns MBA, Columbia Pacific.
1978: Earns bachelor's degree, Columbia Pacific.